The Making of a Highlander

Midnight in Scotland, Book 1

By: Elisa Braden

Narrated by: Ruth Urquhart

Length: 11 hrs

Publisher's Summary

Everyone wants handsome adventurer John Huxley to settle down - family, friends, London society. Everyone except John. He's evaded too many scheming title huntresses to trust in happily ever after. Now, a vow made to a dying friend has him locked in a land dispute with a stubborn Scot who offers one way out: Win the Highland Games. John likes a challenge, but this one's impossible. Still, with training from the Scot's stepdaughter, victory might be within reach. He only has to teach the fiery, foulmouthed, breeches-wearing lass how to land a lord. It seems "impossible" is just getting started.

Everyone calls her Mad Annie. True, her best friend is a ghost. And yes, her greatest talents involve cooking for giants and taunting ridiculously handsome Englishmen. But she's not mad - she's desperate. To save her friend, Annie must marry a lord. The trouble is no lord will look twice at a hoyden like her. This calls for "Lady Lessons", and she knows just the uptight Englishman to provide them.

When Annie's family is targeted by a dangerous enemy, John is tempted to stay, to fight, and to win the greatest prize of all: a fiery lass' tender, loyal heart.

Contains mature themes.

©2020 Elisa Braden (P)2020 Tantor

Fantastic!

Absolutely fantastic!
Never, have I laughed so much while reading a romance. Annie and English are wonderful

Very entertaining!

Excellent story and strong characters. I caught myself laughing out loud. I had been reading some heavy, dark historical fiction and mysteries lately and needed something with a decent plot but not so dark. This story runs the full gamut of emotions but no gory details. Wish the next one was audible.

A Good Read!

Annie, she is the mast fun character if have ever read! Then you throw in Mrs. B and wow! Shame on the devil an capers! I don't want to give the story away, I read reviews to pick my next book and I get upset when they dwell on the story and give it away. This book is worth the time. Going to spend a credit on book 2 now, can\t wait to read these characters again!

Storytelling

Elisa B has a unique talent to bring characters to life; you can feel a lot through her story telling what the characters are going through.
Her stories have depth and passion, which makes her books such a joy to read.

Loved it!

I couldn’t put it down! I loved all of the characters and the storyline. Now I’m looking for the next book in the series.

The narrator also does an excellent job with the different characters and accents.

Love this book and Narrator is AMAZING!

I’m pretty picky about my narrators. And Ruth Urquhart is one of the best I’ve heard. This is a wonderful story with ups and downs and some suspense, and all delivered beautifully by excellent narration. I just finished book 2 and hope there will be more in this series and with this narrator!

Meh

I waited to laugh as all the reviews said they had…nothing to laugh about unless you consider constant berating of someone funny. Weak plot, weak danger and mystic portions. I trudged through hoping it would get better. Best part was the narrator did a wonderful job with different voices.

Fantastic Story!

I loved, loved this book! Of course Ruth Urquhart was amazing as always, but I enjoyed the story so much!! I will listen to this one over and over for sure. What an excellent female lead in a story!

Spunky highland lass determinedly seeking

If you enjoy a story about winning by never giving up, then you will fight right alongside Annie as she makes things work out. Feisty and one who speaks her mind, this not so demure lass entrances the very proper Englishman. Good read for a cold night needing a bit of romance.

Enjoyed this unique heroine and story!

I LOVED this slow burn Scottish romance!

The story took me a while to get in to. There are STRONG accents used which sometimes gives me a headache to try to read but it is imperative to the plot of the story so I’ll allow it. We start the story with Annie harassing her elderly wise woman about a “cure” for her young friend. And I guess I was expecting a meet cute right away or maybe if felt like I was just plopped down into a story already half way done without any idea what was going on. Not sure but I had a hard time focusing or caring initially (I gave it 4 stars so obviously that doesn’t last long).

Then we get into the sniping... lots and lots of Annie sniping at John and John kinda wanting to tup her but also not wanting to get himself involved while he fixes up a property left to him by a good friend and business partner. So this too was a bit irritating and I had a hard time believing that anything would get these two unlikely individuals together (but I get that’s one of my favorite things about slow burns and enemies to lovers tropes - I LOVE the process of being proven wrong).

A few wagers and one “I forbid you two from seeing each other” later and the two are pining for each other HARD. There are some issues and lies to overcome but I like how the resolution wasn’t overblown and the heroine came to understand the reasons behind the lies. I also loved how the hero came to believe in the heroine’s mysteries (it wasn’t all in one shot but a slow piecing together of clues and deep love of the heroine).

Speaking of which, I BELIEVED their love! In spite of Annie’s “imperfections” I really believed that John came to deeply love her and vice verse. And WOW! Hot love scenes in the last half FTW!

I didn’t quite get what was going on with the abduction scene but I thought that the rest of the “mystery” was a nice plot point but didn’t overwhelm the story at all and fit in very nicely to show John’s devotion to Annie and her devotion to her step family.

There are time gaps that might irritate some people (2 months pass here and there) but I didn’t find them to be of much significance and didn’t bother me at all.

SPOILER BELOW:
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...

No real trigger warnings I can think of though Annie’s brother was terribly tortured and disfigured it is not described in the book.

Dearie me!

This is the first and last book I shall be reading by this author!

This Lord is no gentleman, groping a lady in a doorway and then "tupping" her in the middle of the night. Yeah , right?!

Slapping the occasional midge? Has this author been to Scotland in midge season?

This book insulted my intelligence. This gobbledegook was just too much!

Loved the story

Loved every second of the story. This new series is a continuation of the series Rescued from Ruin. It is about John Huxley of the lovely Huxley family. I love them. There were quite a few hilarious one liners said mostly by Annie, she was sob.c sweet and funny, she really made me laugh.
The narrator was ok but at times Annie's voice sounded like a cartoon character and John's voice sounded like a16 year old boy most of the time and in the beginning like a spoilt 16 year old, not a nice big tall strapping gentleman. At times when he was supposed to sound sexy, he wasn't sexy at all, he sounded really pathetic.
I'm an addict of audio books and have listened to hundreds of books and I have quite a few favourite narrators but Ruth Urquhart is not one of them. My favourite narrators are mostly male. But there are a few female narrators I like also.
If it wasn't for her mispronunciations of any words with an A, I preferred the previous narrator Mary Sarah, of the series Rescued from Ruin. Pity about the pronunciation of her words though. Now on to the next one.

3.5 stars

This was an enjoyable story. Few niggles with it, but nothing major. I’ll get more in the series.